Our hatred should be directed at TPLF only

For decades TPLF ruled with an iron fist, with tribal policies and politics that benefited only a few from their own tribe. They repeated the same injustices from the past so now the situation is going to go back in reverse.

It will be poor Ahmaras, Tigrays Oromos and the rest who will suffer. I sadly chuckle when people say that Ethiopia has never been colonized, we have been for a long time, the same way western imperialists play one tribe against another in other "African" countries is the same way they play various tribes in Ethiopia.

People thought I was against Tigray people when I spoke up against the ruthless tyranny of the TPLF but it was never about tribe. I love Tigray people as much as my father's Gonder and my mother's Shewa heritage and the rest of Ethiopia's people. Rather, I stood against TPLF's ruthlessness because I knew in due time when America has pimped TPLF long enough, they would empower another tribe and another gang of thugs. After TPLF the next tyrants will probably be the Ginbot 7 thugs, they are getting their weapons and financial backing from the west the same way TPLF got their backing from the west.

But tribalism obstructs logic as some Tigray people puff their chest thinking their bravery alone defeated Mengistu as if American and British weaponry, military assistance and financial backing had nothing to do with it. Now some Ahmara people puff their chest thinking that Ginbot 7 is about to overthrow TPLF. In both cases, either TPLF or Ginbot 7, they are being backed by western overloads to do the dirty work of imperial powers. Why do you think there are people on ESAT who are openly advocating a civil war, who do you think will swoop in to be the "white knights" once the killing starts.

This is how the game is played, colonialism depends on destabilized countries and a people who love tribe above the nation as a whole. As people keep fighting over tribe, the resources and riches of the nation is shipped off to western capitals and greedy western institutions. A fractional few are rewarded for siphoning off the wealth of Ethiopia, they live like royalty being whore of their western masters while the mass majority, irrespective of tribe, live life in abject poverty. As long as that keeps happening in Ethiopia, the cycle of revenge and oppression will never end.

TPLF, as ruthless as they are, are not the disease, they are the symptom of western imperialism and colonialism. And in our rush to be "westernized", to develop and chase material wealth, we too contribute to this virus of tribal greed and pernicious colonialism. Either we unite as a people or we will continue to suffer as a people. Forget developing buildings that profit a tribal few, we need leaders who will develop the people and implement policies that benefit the whole instead of enriching a fractional minority.

And people need to stop protesting at the State Department and realize the true thugs who are destroying the country are at Department of State and the Obama administration.

This stubborn fact won't change regardless of Hillary or Trump. I was once foolish enough to believe that Obama would change America's policy of pillaging "Africa" and impoverishing her people as I went state to state organizing "Ethiopians for Obama" and getting plugged into his campaign and being involved in his election in ways very few people really know about. I see it all as folly now, an education brought about by harsh reality and the consequences that comes with speaking truth instead of preaching demagoguery.

I learned the hard way that Democrats and Republicans are all the same, both puppets of a corporatist agenda that is dividing and conquering people in America the same way they do in "Africa". Politics is irrelevant, it's the policies we need to be paying attention to. As long as we keep fighting over tribe whether that tribe is that of our ancestors or the tribes we take on now as we run around calling ourselves Democrats or Republicans or identifying with artificial constructs that are meant to divide us from others, we will always fall victim to those who enrich themselves at the cost of humanity. Signing petitions to the White House asking Obama to stop TPLF's ethnic genocide is laughable, TPLF is nothing more than an appendage of America's foreign policy, understand this and you will realize that it's the White House and their policies that are coordinating these human tragedies.

Maybe we need to stop protesting all together and unite as a people and disregard tribalism or what we are seeing now is just a tip of the iceberg. Outsiders, whether western imperialists pretending to be about hope and change or eastern would be hegemons would not be able to spread violence and carnage through their TPLF henchmen or those who come after them if only we would realize our oneness and stop looking through the prism of tribalism. We are a people of Adwa who repelled western aggression a century and a half ago, that would not have been possible if we were not united as one people. Hatred won't defeat hatred, bullets will lead to more bullets. Only unity over tribalism will heal our country.

Those who call for the eviction or eradication of Tigray people are no better than the very same TPLF junta they purport to hate. And those who have been supporting TPLF for years and bragging about the development of Ethiopia while ignoring the plight of the masses, your sudden concern when you feel the repercussions of federalism on "your people", they ring hollow and only show your tribal colors.

As for those who ignore the suffering that American and western policies are inflicting in Ethiopia and throughout "Africa", remember the lessons of the years leading up to World War II. Haile Selassie once gave a speech to the League of Nations where he warned that the brutality going on in Ethiopia at the hands of Mussolini will land at the doorsteps of Europe in due time. The past is always prologue, the suffering of Ethiopians will in time land in the very western nations that are at the forefront of colonialism throughout the world.